1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer which performs the printing by discharging an ink from nozzles.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an ink-jet recording apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,355 B1 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-205747), a liquid for preservation, which is prepared by removing components of the dye and the pigment from an ink, is charged into a recording head when the ink-jet printer is shipped from a factory. Upon the first time start-up, an initial purge is performed to suck the liquid or solution contained in the recording head from nozzles. Accordingly, the storage solution contained in the recording head is discharged, and the ink is introduced from an ink cartridge into the recording head.
If the air exists in the recording head, the air consequently remains without being discharged from the recording head when the ink is introduced into the recording head, and the air causes a factor of the discharge failure of the ink. However, in the case of the ink-jet recording apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,355 B1, the interior of the recording head is filled with the liquid for preservation upon the shipping, and the air does not exist in the interior. Therefore, when the ink is introduced from the ink cartridge into the recording head, the air does not remain in the recording head.
The liquid, which is charged into the recording head upon the production, is not limited to the exclusive storage solution as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,355 B1. For example, the liquid may be any ink of the same type as that of the ink to be discharged from the nozzles. When the ink (initial ink) is charged into the recording head upon the shipping, it is also conceived that the printing is performed by using the initial ink.
However, when the ink-jet recording apparatus is filled with the initial ink upon the shipping as described above, then the gas enters the initial ink in some cases and the viscosity of the initial ink increases in other cases due to the change of the environment including, for example, the temperature and the pressure during a period from the shipping of the ink-jet recording apparatus to the first time start-up. In such a situation, if it is intended to perform the printing by using the initial ink, for example, it is feared that the failure may arise in the discharge of the ink from the nozzles and/or the bending may arise in the ink discharge direction. It is feared that any required printing quality cannot be realized.
In view of the above, the following procedure is conceived. That is, the initial purge is performed to completely discharge the initial ink in the same manner as in the case in which the storage solution is charged into the recording head as described above. The printing is performed after the ink is newly introduced into the recording head. However, if the initial ink is uniformly discharged by the initial purge, the initial ink is discharged even when the gas does not exist in the initial ink and the viscosity of the initial ink is not increased. The initial ink, which can be utilized for the printing, is uselessly discharged.